The Richmond 2000A Islanders came back from the U18 Canadian Softball Championships in Alberta with something they’ve never had before — a gold medal in the Tier Two Division.
“The team has been very competitive for the last four years but we have never been able to put it together in a tournament format. We’ve lost gold to earn silver and lost silver to earn bronze, but this is the first time we ended a tourney on a winning note, and it felt great.” said head coach Troy Latrace.
Over the previous three seasons at nationals, the Islanders have completed round-robin play with a combined 14-1 record, putting them in the top tier each time, where they then went 1-6 in the playoffs. This year they got off to a quick 4-0 start at the 20-team event with wins over Winnipeg, Quebec, Calgary and host Lloydminster, but then stumbled in the next three games, bumping them out of Tier One championship contention.
“It was difficult to go through, being in the driver’s seat only to have things go sideways, but it still put us in a group with some very good teams,” continued Latrace. “Being a first-year team, and based on how we were playing, it’s probably where we belonged. Our pitching and defence were pretty good but our offence needed to be more consistent to make a strong run at the Tier One teams.”
The playoffs started with a rematch against Lloydminster, where the Islanders played probably their best game of the tournament, taking a 5-2 decision in front of a loud partisan crowd.
This led to rematch against Mississauga, who handed them their first loss in the round robin by a 7-4 score. This time the Islanders came ready to play and took the game 6-3, putting them straight through to the championship game.
The same Mississauga team earned its way back to the final the next day but once again Richmond had their number, going ahead early and neverlooking back in a 7-0 blowout to take gold. Over the final two games the Islanders outhit the Ontario team 20-10.
“Overall I’m happy with the result. Winning a tourney was a shot of confidence for our team for sure,” added Latrace. “Our goal was to still be playing on Sunday so even though we dropped down to Tier Two it was still a victory for us, and regardless a 7-3 record at nationals is something to be proud of. We were probably top three or four of the first-year teams so I definitely think we will be back in the running for the Tier One finals next year.”
